I recently purchased an Elan IIE and I'm wondering about the usefulness of the Magic Lantern books. Some of the information in the owner's manual stops a little short in it's explanation. Any opinions?

-- Tom Weistar (ropes@jps.net), December 06, 1999

Answers

Magic Lantern books are superb. They go into a bit more depth than the manual. I have the Elan IIe as well and the ML book for it. I consult it before I pick up my manual. It also has quite a section on Canon EF lenses that might help you choose a(nother) lens to put on your camera. By all means, pick one up.

-- Colin Miller (ckmiller@pond.net), December 07, 1999.

The Magic Lantern guides are worth purchasing, but I would still become very familiar with the Canon owner's manual. The ML guides are certainly more entertaining and readable than the owner's manual, and they typically offer interesting discussions on the history of Canon design evolution for both lenses and camera bodies, as well as occasional comments on any quirks or idiosyncrasies; the author(s) may also point out any discrepancies or errors that they detected in the manual. I've owned Magic Lantern guides for the EOS 1n, A2, Elan, and 540EZ flash, as well as George Lepp's Magic Lantern guide on Canon lenses, and while none of these guides could ever be described as exhaustive or in-depth, they are fun reading and somewhat helpful. Also, they typically contain some nice color plates (and they often contain a note thanking Chuck Westfall of Canon USA for his expertise and advice in the preparation of the manuals).

-- kurt heintzelman (heintzelman.1@osu.edu), December 07, 1999.

Neither the owners manual or the ML books really give you much technical info. It's a real shame too, because the Elan II has lots of technical stuff to know. Bob Atkins web site has a very good primer on E-TTL flash that every Elan II owner needs to read. Also the FAQ's that you can access from there are very helpfull.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), December 08, 1999.

IMHO, purchasing this book was worst $20 I've ever spent on photo.

The book consists of a) material form manual b) small doze of absolutely trivial general photography info c) misinformation.

For its volume, it should cost $5; for its content, you should be paid for your time when reading it!

Just my impression.

-- Poul Costinsky (poul@my-dejanews.com), December 21, 1999.